Incubator



Dec. 23, 1930,. P. J. ETTELDORF- I NCUBATOR Filed Oct. 2l, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet l m U. N n O m nm m/Nm. 1 mm, mi m v\ @wf 3d M m s u m am( E A/.V J f W4 T m Nm. @s wh o e x P v l' \TQ \E E S\\ u m \m h mN N 0*.. u

Dec. 23, 1930. P. J. ETTELDQRF 17,785,942

INcUBAToR Filed Octv 21, 1926 24Sheets-Sheet 2 im L; 1 20 I 29W 5l i 229 Z7 ,214

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Patented Dec. 23, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE INCUBATOR Application filed October 21, 1926. Serial No. 143,268.

This invention relates to incubators and more particularly to one in which there is no direct forced draft, and has for its object to provide a construction moreeflicient in use and less costly to manufacture than those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view the invention consists in the novel details of construction and arrangements. of parts as will be more fully hereinafter disclosed and parn ticularly pointed out in the claims.

This application is a continuation in part of applications Serial No. 721,498, filed J une 21, 1924, and Serial No. 29,721 filed` May 12, 1925.

An important obj ect of this invention is to provide means whereby there is no positive directional circulation of the air through the egg-tray compartment although said air is in motion and therefore not stagnant.

A further important object is to provide a construction whereby there is no recirculation of air to and overthe heating medium. On the other hand fresh heated air is always put into the egg-tray compartment.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an incubator in which the air is always under pressure, not too great to seriously affect the chicks, but sufficient to eXpel warmed, foul air thereby insuring better hatch conditions and healthier chicks.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views,- Y

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of an incubator made in accordance with this invention and taken substantially centrally of the same;

Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse sectional view taken as. on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and looking toward the impeller;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken as on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view taken as on the line 4 4 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional View similar to Fig. 1 but illustrating a modified form of the invention.

The incubator comprises a suitable housing or casing 10 of metal or wood as desired and preferably rectangular in shape. Vithin the housing 10 and at suitably spaced intervals are uprights 11 provided with cross pieces to-accommodate the trays 12 in which are located the eggs. Each tray may be of any suitable type as found most convenient, butr it is. vpreferred to provide trays having a reticulate bottom such for example as might be formed from fine wire mesh. Each tray is adapted to receive a cover 13, which likewise may be of wire mesh, to keep the chicks in their` respective trays out of harm.

`A horizontal shaft 14, journaled in suitable bearings 15 carried by the housing 10, is disposed centrally of the incubator, one end eX- tending outside thereof and having mounted thereon a gear 16 meshing with a pinion 17 secured to the main shaft 18 of an electric motor 19 disposed on a bracket 2O secured to said housing. It is obvious that any other suitable means of rotating the shaft 14 may be employed within the scope of this invene tion, the motor19 illustrated in the drawings being conventional.

Within the casing and mounted on the shaft 14 for rotation therewith is a compressor generally indicated by the numeral 21, comprising a hub 22 and a plurality of blades 23 secured substantially tangential thereto. These blades 23 are each parallelly disposed with respect to the shaft 14 and are of different lengths as will be clear from Figs. 1 and 2. That is to say, alternate blades are of a certain length, whereas the intermediate blades are longer. It thus' results that as the compressor or impeller rotates in a counterclockwise direction as seen in Fig. 2, the air will be forced in a radial direction from the hub 22, and the air as it leaves the end of each short blade will be struck by the over-extend ing portion of the adjacent long blade. Stated in still other words, the air receives a plurality of compressions, the first caused by the short blades, and the second caused by that end portion of the long blades which circumferentially over-hangs said short blades. This action of the blades on the air also creates a flow of the air in various directions. In other words, it is quite evident that the air will leave the blades of the impeller in as many radial directions as there are blades. As the air leaves each shorter blade it is given a certain directional flow, but immediately thereafter said air is struck by the end of the adjacent long blade and given a new directional iow which is somewhat transverse to the first mentioned flow.

The result of this agitation of the air by the blades 23 of Ydiil'ering length is that no positive directional flow or forced draft, is given to the air. On the other hand, all of the air aected is forced from the ends of the blades of the impeller in a direction away from the shaft 14, with the result that said air may be said to be compressed in a radial direction, and against the inner surfaces of the housing in a plane including the iinpeller 21. The air that takes the place of the air so compresse-d is drawn from either side of the impeller at the hub portion thereof. In other words, the action of the blades 23 in forcing the air radially from the hub, will tend to create a vacuum adjacent said hub which causes air on both sides of the impeller to enter the plane of the impeller and be forced radially therefrom by said blades.

Adjacent the compressor 21 is a baffle construction extending entirely across the incubator and comprising a plate 24 suitably pro vided with openings formed by cutting and displacing plural sections of said plate in angular arrangement, or said baiiie may comprise a hub on which are mounted radially extending blades parallelly disposed with respect to said hub, said blades being set at an angle to the shaft 14. The particular type of baiiie shown in the drawings consists of the sheet 24 having slits along the radial lines 26, the material of the plate being partly displaced adjacent said slits to provide the angularly set batile segments 27 having extended openings 28 as shown in Fig. 4. The angular disposition or set of these segments 27 is in a cooperable relationship with the impeller 21, so that as the latter rotates, air drawn in a lateral direction into the plane of the impeller may pass through the baifle member, as will be readily understood. Another important cooperation between the impeller and this baille is that air can pass in only one direction through the latter. This will be evident from the drawingsin which it is clearly shown that the individual blades 27 of the baffle are inclined angularly so that, as the impeller 21 rotates, it will cause air to pass through the openings 28 in a direction toward the impeller only.

The baliie separates the impeller from a chamber 29 in which is disposed any suitable source of heat, a coil 31 being shown in the drawings through which steam or hot water may be circulated. represents a small opening in the wall of the housing 10 comf municating with the heating chamber 29 and by means of which fresh air may be supplied to the incubator.

In the lowermost portion of the housing there is provided a chamber separated from the main portion of the incubator as by the partition 32, and in said chamber is disposed a tray 33 for water. One end of the chamber is controlled by a valve such as the member 34, pivoted as at 35, and pressed by a spring 36 against the baille wall 24 in order that water vapor or moisture from the pan 33 may be drawn into the heating chamber 29 at desired intervals of time.

Air that has already served its purpose for incubation is released at the top of this device through the opening 37 into and through a stack or hood 38 which is of such a size and area as to gov'ern the outiiow to the amount compressed to the same. ln other words, the opening 37 and the stach 3S will be of relatively small size so that there will be a comparatively slow passage of air through tue incubator under pressure whereby the temperature of the air within the chamber may be kept more constant than would be the case were air passing rapidly through the device. The stack 38 has a flange 39, cxtenoing partly interiorly and partly extericrly thereof for securing said stack to the incubator, and a closure or cover 40, pivotcd as at 4l, may bc variably positioned with respect to said stack through the medium of a lo., bar 42, pivnotches or teeth 44 to selectively e ne .l ce upper edge of the stack. ln other words, the cover may be retained in various adjusted positions to control the pas. ige of air out of the stack 38.

In operation the shaft 14 rotates the inipeller 21 thus causing the air within the egg chamber to be agitated, moved past the openings of the baille, and compressed against the walls of the chamber all in a radial direction. inasmuch as the shaft 14 is centrally located in the chamber, the pressure of the air at all parts of the walls of said chamber will be substantially the same at any one time. As the air reaches said wall, it can not pass through the imperforate portion of the baille plate 24, and therefore it must necessarily pass to and between the trays containing the eggs. As pointed out above, however, there is no positive directional flow of vthe air and therefore it may be said that the air, in passing through and over the egg trays, is in a myriad oi' circuits. This being the case, an important advantage which this device has over heretofore known constructions is that the temperature of the air in all parts of the incubator is substantially uniform, with the further a vantage that there is no area in the incubator where the air is stagnant. To further provide for the free passage of air to all parts of the device, the corners formed between adjacent walls of the housing may be provided with suitable angular deflectors.

Various changes may be restorted to within the scope and spirit of this invention, as for instance a tandem arrangement such as illustrated in Fig. 5 wherein two devices substantially like that previously described are built into a single housing A which has a central partition as at B cutting off communication between the two sections. Otherwise the construction is identical with that in the preceding figures as indicated by the same reference numerals.

Summarizing the foregoing it will now be obvious that by this construction there is produced an incubator having a compartment in which are located egg trays in combination with means for compressing air in said compartment without creating a forced draft over the eggs in said trays, and this means (which is the impeller 2l) is so constructed that the air under pressure is not only sent radially from the axis of rotation of said impeller, but the air, in being forced from the blades, is successively acted upon due to the differing lengths of said blades. Also the air compressed by the impeller creates inductively myriad circuits or currents of air through the portion of the compartment in which the egg trays are located, which currents have indefinite directional iiows and therefore none that is positive. Also it will be obvious that the ooaction between the impeller 2l and the baffle 24 is such that air can only pass in one direction through the openings of said baffle with the result that only the fresh air admitted through the opening 30 and heated by the coil 3l can be put into circulation. Stated in other words, air that has already been heated and passed into the main compartment where the egg trays are located can never be reheated, and therefore there is no circulation of reheated air as is most common in incubators heretofore known, thus insuring a freshness of air through the incubator most desirable for the hatching of chicks.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction and arrangements of parts as well as vary the steps of the method employed without departing from the spirit of this invention and therefore it is not desired to be limited to the foregoing except as may be demanded by thc claims.

What is claimed is l. In an incubator comprising a compartment and trays for eggs therein, a source of heat, and means including an impeller and a baffle with blades each radiating from a common center, said baffle coacting with said impeller through the pitch of said blades and direction of impeller rotation to cause air heated by said source to be drawn through said baiiie to enter said compartment for affecting the eggs' in said trays and prevented from passage through said baiie to leave said compartment. i

2. An incubator comprising. an egg compartment,'a chamber containing a source of. heat said chamber-'having associated therewith aY single passage communicating with. said compartment, and means comprising` an impeller and a baffle disposed intermediateV said source of heat and said impeller, said battle disposed in said passage and having its blades overlappingly set in a- 'direction toward said impeller to cause air heated by said source to pass by virtue of the rotation of said impeller into said compartment.

3. An incubator comprising an egg compartment, a chamber containing 'a source of heat said chamber having associated therewith a single passage communicating with said compartment, and means comprising an impeiler and a baffle disposed intermediate said course of heat and said i1npeller,sai.d baiile disposed in said passage and' having its blades radiating from a common center and pitched in a direction toward said impeller to cause air heated by said source to pass by virtue of the rotation of said impeller into said compartment.

4. An incubator comprising an egg compartment closed except for an air inlet and an air outlet, a chamber containing a source` of heat and communicating with said compartment by said inlet, an impeller in said compartment, and a baiile in said inlet having passages set obliquely in the direction of rotation of said impeller, said impeller coacting with said baiie to cause heated air to enter said compartment from saidchamber.

5. An incubator comprising an egg compartment closed except for an air inlet and an air outlet,a chamber containing a source of heat and communicating with said compartment by said inlet, an impeller in said compartment, and a baffle in said inlet having passages set obliquely in the direction of rotation of said impeller, said impeller coacting with said baffle to cause air heated in said chamber to enter said compartment through said passages and be discharged through said outlet.

(i. An incubator comprising an egg compartment having its air outlet in one wall and its air inlet in another the outlet in open communication with the outside atmosphere, an air heating chamber singly communicating with said compartment through said inlet, a baffle in said inlet providing a plurality of obliquely disposed air passages, and means to force the air in said compartment across said baie substantially in the direction of said passages to draw heated air from said chamber through said passages into said compartment.

7 An incubator comprising an egg compartment having its air outlet in one wall and its air inlet in another the outlet in open communication with the outside atmosphere, an air heating chamber With which said inlet communicates, a baile in said inlet providing a plurality of obliquely disposed air passages, and means to force the air in said compartment substantially radially across said baffle as Well as in the direction of said passages to draw heated air from said chamber through said passages into said compartment.

8. An incubator comprising an egg compartment having its air outlet in one Wall and its air inlet in another the outlet in open communication with the outside atmosphere, an air heating chamber With Which said inlet communicates, a batlie in said inlet providing a plurality of obliquely disposed air passages, and means comprising a rotating hub provided With a plurality of ta-ngentially mounted blades to force the air in said compartment across said baiile substantially in the direction of said passages to dra-W heated air from said chamber through said passages into said compartment.

9. An incubator comprising an egg compartment having its air outlet in one Wall and its air inlet in another the outlet in open com muuication With the outside atmosphere, an air heating chamber With Which said inlet communicates, a bafie in said inlet providing a plurality of obliquely disposed air passages, and means comprising an impeller consisting of a rotating hub provided with a plurality of tangentially mounted blades parallelly disposed to the axis of rotation of said hub, said impeller acting to force the air in said compartment across said baiiie to draw heated air from said chamber through said passages into said compartment.

In testimony whereof I ailix my signature.

PETER J. ETTELDORF. 

